Fashion and city branding: An analysis of the perception of Florence as a fashion city

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to investigate the role of fashion in branding a city as a fashion city, through an analysis of tourists’ and fashion consumers’ perceptions of Florence, Italy. The analysis was based on how the city’s fashion industry and image were perceived by tourists and how such perceptions influenced their decisions to visit Florence. The data were gathered from a field survey carried out during the months of March and April 2015. A questionnaire was created and administered in person to tourists and fashion consumers around the via Tornabuoni, a famous luxury street in the historic city centre of Florence. Tourists’ and fashion consumers’ perceptions of the city’s image and its shopping opportunities were subsequently analysed. The results demonstrate the significant role that fashion plays in the global attractiveness of Florence as a fashion city by improving its image, promoting positive tourist perceptions and strengthening the competitiveness of local fashion brands and shops. Some interesting implications for managers of fashion brands and city marketers were also found, as both the branding and the status of Florence as a fashion city can influence the future success of the fashion industry.

在国际文献中,人们对时尚城市分析和时尚如何影响城市的品牌和竞争力越来越感兴趣。时尚之都通常是商业，金融，娱乐，文化和休闲活动的广泛组合，是国际公认的独特和强烈的身份。Jansson 和 Power 给出了时尚和基于设计的工业有助于创造支持全球城市地位的形象和神话的方法。因此,许多学者讨论了时尚在未来创意城市和相关行业的重要性。事实上, 与这种现象最相关的方面是文化和创意行业，这与时尚的设计和创造力有关，并且有助于促进本行业和城市的整体吸引力。因此,研究时尚在城市竞争和认知中的作用是至关重要的,研究这个创意产业的方法可以提高全球时尚城市的吸引力。

本研究的目的是通过分析游客和时尚消费者对佛罗伦萨的认知，探讨时尚在构建时尚城市品牌过程中的作用。分析是基于游客如何感知城市的时尚产业和形象，这种感知又是如何影响他们选择游览佛罗伦萨的。我们探讨了时尚是否同文化遗产和其他资源，比如艺术等一起，是城市魅力的组成元素。游客对时尚城市的感知是特别重要的，因为一个城市的形象和品牌化可以影响其未来的竞争力和时装行业。佛罗伦萨特别适合作为分析对象有以下几个原因。首先，它是国际知名的艺术旅游城市,以创意产业为特征，比如设计和时尚。佛罗伦萨是艺术、文化遗产、时尚产业和旅游的组合，因此这是一个完美的研究案例。此外, 由于奢侈品例如 Gucci, Ferragamo 和 Prada 的制造带位于大都会区，佛罗伦萨在意大利时尚城市排名中占据第三位，仅在米兰和罗马之后。佛罗伦萨的国际形象与这些世界知名品牌密切相关，在市中心存在非常重要的购物和时装区，以及越来越受欢迎的品牌折扣店

在2015年的3月和4月进行了本研究的实地调查工作。问卷调查发放给在著名的豪华街道Via Tornabuoni周围的佛罗伦萨历史城市中心的游客和时尚消费者，并以手答方式进行。调查选择这个区域进行的理由是它与奢侈品购物密切相关。佛罗伦萨的主要时尚商店都位置于这条地处市中心的街道上,周围是历史、艺术和文化景点。此外,该地区还包含了品牌博物馆，如Gucci和Ferragamo。

调查问卷是基于先前的对时尚城市和游客感知研究，以及旅游文献中游客目的地感知的研究形成的。为了获得游客对佛罗伦萨时尚购物和形象的完整感知图片，问卷的题目十分广泛。受访者给出一系列他们的经验和感受，并从“非常不认同”到“非常认同”的选项中给出选择。二百个随机游客,包括意大利人和外国人,都是在他们参观城市或在市中心购物时参与答卷的。

研究结果指出, 时尚可以在全球的时尚城市的吸引力中发挥作用，提高其感知和增强当地时尚品牌和商店的竞争力。同时结果也给出有助于时尚品牌管理者和城市管理者的建议，城市的品牌和定位会影响其未来时尚行业的成功。这项研究强调了时尚产业和当地购物对佛罗伦萨市城市形象的重要性, 强调了前者是如何影响选择参观我们的城市的时尚消费者的购买行为的 。本研究具体构成如下。在引言后，是本文的第二部分，讨论了城市品牌和时尚的重要性，并且回顾了最近的研究。第三部分介绍了研究设计和调查问卷。第四部分说明了分析结果,包括研究中样本的特点,对佛罗伦萨购物及其作为时尚城市的感知知的实际结果,和决定感知因素的回归分析的结果。最后一部分给出了影响城市品牌化和时装公司的结果和管理建议。

Keywords:

• Fashion city
• fashion industry
• branding
• tourists’ perceptions
• Florence

关键词:

• 时尚城市
• 时尚产业
• 品牌化
• 游客认知
• 佛罗伦萨

Notes

1. Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005, p. 510) affirm that place marketing ‘is impossible as places are not products, governments are not producers, and users are not consumers’.

2. The questionnaire was originally composed in English, but was translated into Italian for this study. We express our gratitude to Giulia Pretini for data collection. Coherence between the two languages was verified prior to implementation to avoid misinterpretation of the questions.

3. In particular, Echtner and Ritchie (1993) examine the concept of destination image with the goal of designing more appropriate and rigorous techniques for its measurement, and present a series of questions and scale items to successfully capture all of the components of a destination image; Baloglu & McCleary (1999) develop a model to investigate the important determinants of destination image formation, emphasising that a destination image is formed by both stimulus factors and tourist characteristics.

4. Respondents were asked about their motives for visiting Florence, how they had heard about the city, whether they had been there before, which cultural attractions they had visited and how long they were staying.

5. In particular, respondents were asked to express their opinions about shopping in Florence and the strengths and weaknesses of their shopping experiences; they were also asked to indicate where they had shopped (in the centre or in shopping malls). With regard to their perceptions of Florence, respondents were asked to express their opinions about Florence as a fashion city, to evaluate the city in comparison to other global fashion cities, to indicate the reasons for their choices and to express any criticisms or compliments.

6. The results have been analysed for the two groups and they do not show significant differences.

7. Respondents were selected based on whether they were tourists and whether they were shopping in the city centre (i.e. if they were seen exiting luxury fashion shops with shopping bags or carrying shopping bags while walking around).

8. In all, 24% of tourists stayed in Florence for one or two days, 51% for three to six days and 4% for up to one week. A total of 12% of the tourists stayed in Florence for more than one week.

9. For example, one section of the Gucci Museum is also devoted to serving wine and food.

10. Founded in 1972, Pitti Immagine is the largest fashion event in Florence, with more than 50,000 visitors annually.

11. The Milan data were derived from responses on 300 questionnaires (Jedras, 2011).

12. OLR is a regression model for ordinal dependent variables: for example, one question on a survey would be answered on a Likert scale, and the purpose of the analysis would then be to determine how well that response can be predicted by the responses to the other questions. It can be thought of as an extension of the logistic regression model that is applied to dichotomous dependent variables, allowing for more than two (ordered) response categories (Agresti, 1996).

13. As is always the case with categorical predictors in models with intercepts, the number of coefficients displayed is one less than the number of categories of the variables. In this case, the value omitted for the dependent variable was 2.

14. This statistic is intended to test whether the observed data are consistent with the fitted model. If the p-value is large, then the data and the model predictions are similar and it is considered a good model. However, if the p-value is less than 0.05, then the model does not fit the data well.

15. The log-odds can then be transformed to increase the probability of calculating the exponentiated coefficient. With a value of 1.140, the probability of considering Florence as a fashion city is 3.13 times higher. It must be noted that the odds are related to all of the considered categories versus the omitted one (i.e. with a value of 2 [totally agree]).